It’s hard for a building to be invisible, but the old Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art came close. When opened in 1984, it was an apologetic late-modernist structure set a bit too far back from the street and easy to miss.

But when it reopened in 2006, it had been transformed into one of the most intimate yet urban cultural institutions in Toronto, the sort of place you’d like to stay, let alone visit.

Occupying an important site on the east side of Queen’s Park just south of Bloor, the Gardiner sits in the shadow of the much larger Royal Ontario Museum across the road. While Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind turned the ROM into an icon, Toronto’s KPMB Architects, the firm that remade the Gardiner, opted instead for the quiet elegance of a fully integrated architectural feature.

It is content to be part of the fabric of the city, but without lapsing into the kind of dullness or sameness with which Toronto abounds. This is one of those rare projects that remind us that buildings can be small and sophisticated but still loom large. It also offers proof positive that architectural tricks are unnecessary; good materials and design are all that’s needed for excellence.

The Gardiner’s brilliance lies in its contradictory ability to fit in yet stand out. It is a building of details such as the limestone louvers that can be seen on the front facade. The building consists of a few striking elements, most notably a series of terraced glass-and-stone boxes and a larger glass-faced rectangular space that extends out toward Queen’s Park.

There’s a slightly retro feel to the architecture, which harkens back to the exuberance of Mid-Century Modernism. The museum feels more connected now and the decision to walk those few metres from the sidewalk seems much less difficult.

Once inside, the structure opens up into a number of galleries and multi-purpose rooms that flow from one to the other. The emphasis throughout is on the spaces themselves and how the experience of place changes from room to room. Some galleries are quiet and contemplative; some accommodate more activity. Among the highlights is the large room on the third floor, which leads out to a terrace. This ranks among the city’s great spaces. Filled with natural light and surrounded on two sides with glass, it is as urban an interior as one could find in Toronto. It also happens to offer the best views of the ROM in the city. Those extraordinary carved exterior walls have never been so visible.

Ceramics, of course, don’t rate high on the average museum-goers’ list of things to see. The place was founded in the 1980s by the late financier George Gardiner and his wife, Helen, who amassed a major collection of ceramics they originally hoped to give to the ROM. When that didn’t work out, the couple decided to build their own museum across the road. Though there were difficult years, the Gardiner eventually re-established itself and managed to get funding through the same federal-provincial program that launched Toronto’s so-called cultural renaissance in the early 2000s.

Compared to what happened at the ROM and the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Gardiner remake was modest. But the subsequent increase in attendance, membership and general cultural currency show how architecture can make the critical difference between good intentions and genuine delivery.

Beyond Bricks is a weekly summer series looking at Toronto’s lesser-known architectural gems.

George Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art

111 Queen’s Park

Building type: Museum

Year completed: 1984/2006

Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg

Style: Neo-Modernism

A reminder that good materials and design are all that’s needed for excellence.

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